Girls Basketball: Blue Chip tournament expected to bring in thousands

Dan Wollman from Conner Sport Court International from Utah, and Thomas J. Peterson from Sport Pros in New Jersey set up basketball nets in the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. Tuesday, July 2, 2013. Photo by Adrianna Hoff / Times Herald Staff.

The towns of Lavall (Quebec, Canada), Raleigh (North Carolina), Bangor (Maine), Wilmington (Delaware) and Stoughton (Massachusetts) may be miles apart — geographically and culturally — but they will all be linked together this weekend.

The common thread that joins them is the Blue Chip Invitational USA Invitational. Each of the towns will be represented by teams playing in the huge girls basketball tournament that is being held July 5-8 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks and the Competitive Edge Sports in King of Prussia.

“We have 280 teams coming from Maine to Georgia and from Ohio and Illinois,” said tournament director Bill McDonough. “We also have teams from Spain, Ireland, Canada and the Phillipines.

“There are 64 teams in each bracket. The main brackets are Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. Platinum and Gold are mostly high school juniors and some sophomores. Silver is for sophomores and Bronze is for both 10th and ninth grade players.

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“My team is the Lady Running Rebels in the Platinum bracket. We’re based in Philadelphia with players from all around the area. Two of our players are Sammy Stipa from Spring-Ford High and Carly Monzo from Mount Saint Joseph’s Academy.”

The games will take place on 24 different courts at the two venues — Courts 1-19 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center and Courts 20-24 at Competitive Edge Sports. The approximate game schedule is July 5, 2:30-9:45 p.m.; July 6, 8 a.m.-9:45 p.m.; July 7, 8 a.m.-9:45 p.m.; and July 8, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

“We’ll have 60 games here over the course of each day,” said Abe Badmus, the Facility Operations Manager at Competitive Edge Sports. “We have five permanent courts and Blue Chip rents from us on a regular basis for their various tournaments.

“This is the biggest one because it’s a live NCAA event. It’s a recruiting event. We have a section for coaches separate from the regular audience because the coaches are not allowed to talk to the players or their parents.”

The NCAA has strict requirements. All teams must be registered with NCAA in order to be eligible to play. Coaches and assistant coaches must be NCAA certified and must list all NCAA certified events they are attending. They also must put their rosters on the NCAA site as well as the Blue Chip site.

In order for Division I coaches to attend and observe at an event, an educational session must be scheduled so that all prospective student-athletes (high school and two-year college student-athletes) attend in person or else watch a video presentation including the mandatory topics.

The NCAA’s “Mandatory Lecture” will be held July 5 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. All teams are required to watch the video. Players will then receive a lanyard which they must wear in order to gain entrance to the courts.

“College coaches can only watch the players,” said McDonough. “They can’t have any interaction with the players. We’ve been contacted by over 300 colleges and expect between 400 and 500 coaches at this weekend’s tournament.”

While teams will be arriving from all over the country, there will also be a strong contingent of teams from the Delaware Valley playing in this weekend’s highly-competitive tournament. One of them is the Mid-Atlantic Heat.

“Our older teams have gone to this tournament before but this is the first time we’re sending our ninth-grade team,” said Mid-Atlantic Heat coach Steve Prescott, whose team includes Leona Lavong from St. Helena school in Blue Bell.

“Our older team is going to a tournament in Kentucky. I like taking our teams to the Blue Chip tournament because we get to play five or six games against some really good competition.”

For additional information on the tournament and complete schedules, visit Blue Chip Basketball’s website at http://www.bluechipbasketball.com.